Quote of the Day
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill.
Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke
Happy Birthday, Uncle Roger! The best priest and uncle ever....
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. E.E.O.C.:
SCOTUS in Rare 9-0 Vote Reaffirms Religious Liberty
Thumbs UP!
Any regular reader of this blog knows that I regularly bash lawyers. I briefly thought about going to law school after my academic career ended in a recession, but it had more to do with my longstanding interest in creativity studies and intellectual property law. I know "a mind is a terrible thing to waste", so thankfully I knew better than to become a lawyer.
I did love "The Paper Chase" series, especially Professor Kingsfield: "You teach yourselves the law, but I train your minds. You come in here with a skull full of mush and, if you survive, you leave thinking like a lawyer." I aspired to be a great professor like Kingsfield. And I was. Of course, Kingsfield never taught Obama at Harvard, so that mush... Too bad Obama stopped with a law degree and didn't also earn a Harvard MBA, like Mitt Romney. Obama's profound ignorance on matters of business and economics explains a lot about his lack of necessary perspective as President and his mediocre performance in office. The American people will have a chance to vote for a real President this fall.
It never seeks to amaze me how many rules and regulations of dubious merit get enacted. Just to cite the obvious: does anyone really listen to the legalese script playing in the background of prescription medicine advertisements on TV? Does any smoker really read the warnings on cigarette packages? Remember how you couldn't wait until you turned 18 so you could have "freedom"? And you found, compared to landlord contracts, local ordinances, state and federal laws, your folks' rules on chores, doing your homework, curfews, and cleaning up your room were far more reasonable...
The idea that in a country of life, liberty, and property/pursuit of happiness, we have a DISPROPORTIONATE number of lawyers is utterly absurd. We tie employer hands with all these Nanny State rules and regulations, and then these idiotic progressives innocently look up and ask, why don't employers want to hire more people? Are you kidding me? You can't do this, you can't say that, you have to do such...
The whole idea of the rule of law is that people are supposed to know where they stand. The state (government in general) needs to pick its battles. Why the EEOC got involved in the internal affairs of a private church-affiliated school just defies all logic.Ms. Perich was a teacher whom taught both secular subjects and religion (for which she was trained, attaining a certain ministerial status); she claims that she was unlawfully terminated for reasons involving narcolepsy, a disability. The church wanted her to resolve the grievance internally through the church's due process proceedings given her ministerial status, but she decided to file a complaint/lawsuit through the EEOC.
It seems a fairly blatant violation of the First Amendment for the state to interfere with the church's own authority over its priests or ministers, including compliance with its own appeal processes. (In a number of faiths, the religious principals take vows agreeing to submit to the authority of the church.) The EEOC's preemptive authority over the church's own processes clearly subordinates the church's authority and would neutralize any real authority structure in the church if any principal decided he or she didn't want to abide by the decision and decided to work around the church's processes by cherry-picking federal laws.
The pro-EEOC lobby was making absurd arguments, e.g., arguing that the woman taught mostly secular subjects (although she attended services with the class and taught religion). That ignores the very nature of church-affiliated schools. I attended Catholic schools for parts of my primary and middle school education. It's not like school days consisted of 6 hours religion and 2 hours of reading and math. If you take away religious content, it's simply a private secular school.
It's NOT the Money, Stupid!
Rick Santorum was trying to put lipstick on a pig; for the second straight week, he was in a photo finish in a 2012 contest, this one for fourth place over Gingrich by 117 in New Hampshire (as of the latest results). Now I hate political spin/talking points, not to mention predictable excuses for performance. But the idea of two career Congressional politicians blaming money or lack of money for their performance during the last two contests is patently absurd.
Just consider 4 months ago both men were trailing in the low single-digit percentages. Both of them basically surged in polling, not because of their distinctive points of view; in fact, they have been included in debates from the start, and they were prominent politicians whose positions were well-known. Rick Perry's overflowing campaign coffers weren't enough to keep him from losing badly in the first two states. Gingrich can say all he wants about "lies" and "distortions" of the PAC ads, but what I've seen from the so-called fact-checkers is, for example, Gingrich was paid an estimated amount per hour, when in fact he was on a retainer and wasn't paid by the hour; there were estimates of the number of hours he worked while on retainer. Gingrich can argue that the hour estimates were on the low side, but nobody is going to care whether Gingrich was effectively paid the same amount as a result of hourly invoices or a flat-rate retainer--maybe a court of law cares, but not the court of public option.
There were reasons why the hot "not-Romney" vote went to Cain, Bachmann, and Perry before it ever came to nearly 20-year Congressional veterans. Gingrich resigned his House seat after rivals decided to challenge him as Speaker; Santorum got defeated by 18 percentage points--to give an example of how bad that was, Reagan beat Carter in 1980 by roughly half that margin. I am a Tea Party person and the idea that I want my future President to be someone with crony capitalist ties to a bankrupt GSE the very year of the economic tsunami or someone who voted to approve funding for the Bridge to Nowhere is unthinkable.
No, the only reason why Gingrich and Santorum rose in the polls for the non-Romney vote is because the conservative activists ran out of other candidates. There was a reason they weren't serious contenders most of the year and why it looks like their surges proved to be temporary, with most polls showing right now a 50-50 split between Gingrich and Santorum for the non-Romney vote.
There are legitimate reasons to disagree with Romney's policies, but a brief scan of the South Carolina-related webposts this morning show two professional politicians, Gingrich and Perry, attacking Romney on Bain Capital and abortion. These didn't work in 2008; why do they think it'll work now? Why did Romney lose in 2008? First, we were still in the early stages of the recession, and the economy, one of Romney's strengths, didn't play a major role; second, McCain was viewed as more electable than his competition. Third, whereas Romney's flip-flops were an issue, they are less of an issue with Romney maintaining the same positions that he did 4 years ago.
Where I differ from many fellow conservatives on Romney is that I am less interested in policy statements than in action. What I like is that with a legislature nearly 90% Dem, Romney was busy vetoing things, even when it was likely the Dems would override him; it reminds me of Gerald Ford's spunk in constantly vetoing partisan Democrat legislation in the mid 70's. I'm impressed that Romney managed to fend off a Massachusetts version of HillaryCare, beat back a healthcare payroll tax, didn't provide for a public option, etc. Haven't other conservatives learned from the example of Barack Obama that words don't amount to squat. I'm not worried about speeches; Romney can always hire Herman Cain to write his speeches. I'm more interested in what Presidents actually do, not what they say.
The Dems' Dream Ending to Campaign 2012:
Imagine the Football as Their Responsibility
For the Past 4 Years
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Styx, "Mr. Roboto"
